In the programme's narrative, Jack is a time traveller and former con man from
the 51st century. In contrast to the Doctor, Jack is a man of
action, more willing to apply a hands-on solution to a problem. As
a consequence of his death and resurrection in the 2005 series finale of
Doctor Who, the character becomes immortal. Jack
eventually becomes the leader of Torchwood, a British organisation
dedicated to combating alien threats. An ambiguous backstory is
gradually revealed in the course of both series, adding another
layer of complexity to the character.

Jack is the first openly non-heterosexual character in the
history of televised Doctor Who. The popularity of the
character amongst multiple audiences directly influenced the
development of the spin-off series Torchwood. The
character became a figure of the British public consciousness,
rapidly gaining fame for portrayer John Barrowman. As an ongoing
depiction of bisexuality in mainstream British television, the
character became a role model for young gay and bisexual people in
the UK. Jack is featured in the pages of various Doctor
Who and Torchwood books, as well as having action figures
created in his likeness.

Appearances

Television

Jack Harkness first appeared in the 2005 Doctor Who
episode "The
Empty Child" and its continuation "The Doctor Dances", when Rose (Billie Piper), a
companion of the Ninth
Doctor (Christopher Eccleston), meets him
during the Blitz.
Although posing as an American volunteering in the Royal Air
Force, Jack is actually a former "Time Agent" from the 51st
century who left the agency after inexplicably losing two years of
his memory. Now working as a con man, Jack is responsible for
unwittingly releasing a plague in 20th century London. After the
Doctor cures the plague, Jack redeems himself by taking an
unexploded bomb into his ship; the Doctor and Rose rescue him moments
before it explodes.[1][2]
He subsequently travels with the Doctor and Rose in the Doctor's
time travelling spacecraft, the TARDIS. During his time with the Doctor,[3][4][5]
Jack matures into a hero,[6]
and in his final 2005 appearance, he sacrifices himself fighting
the evil alien Daleks; Rose
brings him back to life while suffused with the power of the time vortex, but she and the
Doctor leave him behind on Satellite 5.[5]

Harkness returned in 2006 as the central character of the
spin-off series Torchwood, in which he leads the Cardiff-based Torchwood
Three in combating alien threats. Jack is re-introduced as a
changed man,[7]
reluctantly immortal, having spent years on Earth waiting to
reunite with the Doctor. Jack recruits policewoman Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) to his team of
experts after she discovers them;[8]
there are hints of romantic feelings between the two,[9]
but Gwen has a boyfriend and Jack enters a sexual relationship with
the team's general factotumIanto Jones (Gareth David-Lloyd).[10]
Despite having worked with him for some time, his present-day
colleagues know very little about him;[11]
over the course of the series they discover that he cannot die, and
that "Jack Harkness" is not in fact his true name, but an alias
taken from a deceased Second World War
airman.[12]
Jack was once a prisoner of war,[12]
and was an interrogator who used torture.[13]
In the Torchwood Series One finale "End
of Days", Jack returns to the TARDIS.[14]
This continues to the 2007 Doctor Who episode "Utopia", where he meets up with the
Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) and
his companion Martha (Freema Agyeman). Jack explains he
returned from Satellite 5 to the present day by travelling to 1869
via vortex manipulator, and lived
through the 20th century waiting for the Doctor.[15]
By the series finale, having spent a year in an alternate timeline
enslaved by the Master (John Simm), Jack opts to return to his team
in Cardiff. Before departing, Jack speculates about his immortality
and reminiscences about his youth on the Boeshane Peninsula,
suggesting that he may one day become the mysterious "Face of Boe" (a
recurring character voiced by Struan Rodger).[16][17]

In Torchwood's second series (2008), Jack returns with
a lighter attitude,[18][19]
and finds his team have continued working in his absence. They are
also more insistent to learn of his past, especially after meeting
his former partner, the unscrupulous Captain John Hart (James
Marsters).[20]
The episode "Adam" explores Jack's childhood in the
Boeshane Peninsula, revealing through flashback sequences how his father Franklin
(Demetri
Goritsas) died and young Jack (Jack Montgomery) lost his
younger brother Gray (Ethan Brooke) during
an alien
invasion.[21]
Flashbacks in the series' penultimate episode "Fragments" depict Jack's capture
by Torchwood in the late 19th century. Initially their prisoner,
Jack is coerced into becoming a freelance agent for the organisation, and
eventually becomes leader of Torchwood Three at midnight on
1 January 2000.[22]
The series finale features the
return of Captain John and Jack's brother Gray (Lachlan Nieboer),
who, after a lifetime of torture by aliens, wants revenge on Jack.
While Jack manages to repair his friendship with Captain John to
some degree, he is forced to place his brother in cryogenic
stasis after Gray kills his teammates Toshiko (Naoko Mori) and Owen (Burn Gorman).[23]
Jack subsequently appears alongside the casts of Torchwood
and The Sarah Jane
Adventures in the two-part crossover finale of the 2008
Doctor Who series, "The Stolen Earth" and "Journey's End". Jack is
summoned along with other former companions of the Doctor to assist
him in defeating the mad scientist Davros (Julian Bleach) and his creation, the
Daleks.[24]
Jack parts company from the Doctor once again, having helped save
the universe from destruction.[25]

Torchwood's third series (2009) is a five-part serial
entitled Children of Earth.[26][27]
Aliens known as the 456 announce they are coming to Earth.
Civil servant John Frobisher (Peter Capaldi)
orders the destruction of Torchwood to cover a conspiracy;[28]
in 1965, the British government had authorised Jack to sacrifice
twelve children to the 456, which is shown in flashbacks.[29]
Jack is blown apart in an explosion, but painfully reconstitutes
from an incomplete pile of body parts; Gwen and Ianto escape and
later rescue Jack from a concrete grave. Jack's daughter Alice (Lucy Cohu) and grandson Steven (Bear McCausland)
are taken into custody by the assassins.[30]
The 456 demand ten percent of the world's children. Although he
handed over twelve children in 1965, Jack refuses to give up any
this time around. The 456 release a fatal virus; Ianto dies in
Jack's arms.[31]
To create the signal that will destroy the 456, Jack sacrifices
Steven. Six months later, having lost his lover, his grandson and
his daughter, he bids farewell to Gwen and is transported aboard an
alien ship to leave Earth for parts unknown.[32]
In closing scenes of 2010 Doctor Who special The End of
Time, the critically injured Doctor gives each companion a
farewell before his impending regeneration. Finding Jack in
an exotic alien bar, he buys him a drink and leaves him a note
containing the name of Titanic crew
member Alonso Frame (Russell Tovey), sat to Jack's side; the
two proceed to flirt.[33][34]

Jack as he appears in the first Torchwood comic book, art
by SL Gallant; the character is featured in a number of different
media.

First published in January 2008, the monthly Torchwood
Magazine began occasionally including Torchwood comic
strips, in which Jack also appears. One such comic, written in
2009 by John Barrowman and sister Carole E. Barrowman, "Captain
Jack and the Selkie", expands on Captain Jack's characterisation.
Barrowman comments that "We’d already agreed to tell a story that
showed a side of Jack and a part of his history that hadn’t been
explored too much in other media. I wanted to give fans something
original about Jack."[53][54]Torchwood Magazine also ran with the ten-part Rift
War! storyline from April to December 2008. The first
Torchwood comic "Jetsam" was later collected along with
Rift War! in a graphic novel.[55][56]

The Torchwood Archives, published after the second
series in 2008, is a companion book written by Gary Russell which
gives an "insider's look" into the life of Jack and the Torchwood
team. The book collects and re-publishes ancillary material which
appeared on the Torchwood website in the first two
seasons, and provides new material such as rough dates for things
like Jack's marriage as relayed by the book's fictional narrator.
The book is composed of fictitious archive notes, personnel forms,
photographs, newspaper clippings and staff memos, and offers
revelations about the character which would later be confirmed by
the television series.[57]
For example, Archives first mention Jack's lover Lucia
Moretti, who is alluded to in Children of Earth.[29]
In a similar vein to The Torchwood Archives but from a
real-world perspective, Gary Russell's The Torchwood
Encyclopedia (2009) will expand on "every fact and figure" for
Jack and the Torchwood world.[58]

Online
media

During the first series of Torchwood, the Torchwood website,
located at torchwood.org.uk, recounted some adventures by Captain
Jack through an alternate reality game made up
of electronic literature in the form
of fictional incercepted blogs, newspaper cutouts and confidential
letters and IM conversations between members of the Torchwood Three
crew. Written by James Goss, the first series'
website sheds some light on Jack's backstory in the years he worked
for Torchwood.[59]
For the second series in 2008, a second interactive
Torchwood online game was devised, scripted by series
writer Phil Ford, and as
with the 2006 website contained some information on Jack's unseen
adventures.[60]
The BBC AmericaTorchwood also has a 'Captain's Blog' section which relays
Jack's accounts of the events of each episode.[61]The
Torchwood Archives by Gary Russell collects much of this
online literature for the first two series in hardback form,
including the Captain's Blog section of the BBC America
website.[57]
During Series Four of Doctor Who, the BBC's website also
included a section called "Captain Jack's Monster Files" featuring
weekly webcast videos
narrated by John Barrowman in character as Captain Jack giving "top
secret" facts collected by Torchwood about Doctor Who
monsters, such as the Slitheen.[62] A
Christmas special 2008 Monster File features Barrowman in new
footage as Jack,[63] as
does the Cybermen edition added following the airing
of "The Next
Doctor" on Christmas Day.[64] For
Dr Fiona Hobden, the Monster Files' mock-documentary format give an
"additional twist" to the interplay between history and fiction.
Because Captain Jack narrates, "the story unfolds in the tradition
of contemporary historical documentary, the docudrama"; in the Monster File for "The Fires
of Pompeii", Harkness' commentary moves the 'reality' of the
episode away from the explosion of Vesuvius and the human
experience, and to the story itself.[65]

Audio
drama

In addition to the paperback novels, Jack also appears in
Torchwood audio books, the first four being Hidden written by Steven Savile and
narrated by Naoko Mori,[66]Everyone Says Hello written by
Dan Abnett and
narrated by Burn Gorman, released February 2008,[67],
In the Shadows by Joseph Lidster
and narrated by Eve Myles, released September 2008,[68]
and The Sin
Eaters written by Brian Minchin and narrated by Gareth
David-Lloyd, released September 2008 .[68]
Joseph Lidster also wrote a BBC Radio 4Torchwood drama, "Lost
Souls" which aired in Summer 2008 as an Afternoon Play featuring the voices of John
Barrowman, Eve Myles, Gareth David-Lloyd and Freema Agyeman. Set
after the events of the 2008 series, Jack and his team make their
first international adventure to CERN in Geneva, as part of Radio 4's special celebration
of the Large Hadron Collider being
switched on.[69]
The special radio episode's plot focuses on the Large Hadron
Collider's activation and the
doomsday scenario some predicted it might incite, as well as
the team's mourning of Toshiko and Owen's recent deaths.[70]
Between 1 July and 3 July, Radio 4 aired three further audio dramas
in The Afternoon Play slot, bridging the gap between
Series 2 and 3.[71]
"Golden Age" introduced Jack'
ex-lover Duchess Eleanor (Jasmine Hyde), the leader of Torchwood
India, which Jack closed down in 1924.[72]
"The Dead Line"
features another ex-girlfriend of Jack's, Stella Courtney (Doña Croll).[73]

Characterisation

Concept and
creation

“

"I wanted kids to like him, and I
wanted women, men, I wanted everyone to like him. But first I
wanted people to hate him. I wanted them to think he was arrogant
and pushy and too sure of himself. And I wanted them to follow the
arc of the change he went through in the final episodes of
Doctor Who."

In naming the character, executive producer and head writer Russell T
Davies drew inspiration from the Marvel Comics character Agatha
Harkness,[75]
a character whose surname Davies had previously used in naming lead
characters in Century Falls and The
Grand. Davies states that reusing names (such as Tyler, Smith,
Harper, Harkness and Jones) allows him to get a grip of the
character on the blank page.[76]
Jack's original appearances in Doctor Who were conceived
with the intention of forming a character arc in which Jack is
transformed from a coward to a hero,[6]
and John Barrowman consciously minded this in his portrayal of the
character.[74]
Following on that arc, the character's debut episode would leave
his morality as ambiguous, publicity materials asking, "Is he a
force for good or ill?"[77]

Actor John Barrowman himself was a key factor in the conception
of Captain Jack. Barrowman says that at the time of his initial
casting, Davies and co-executive producer, Julie Gardner had explained to him that
they "basically wrote the character around [John]".[78]
Davies had singled out Barrowman for the part. On meeting him,
Barrowman tried out the character using his native Scottish accent,
his normal American accent, and an English accent; Davies decided
it "made it bigger if it was an American accent" and the character
became American.[79] John
recounts Davies as having been searching for an actor with a
"matinée idol quality", telling him that "the only one in the whole
of Britain who could do it was you". A number of television critics
have compared Barrowman's performances as Captain Jack to those of
Hollywood actor Tom Cruise.[80][81][82][83][84]

The character's introduction served to posit him as a secondary
hero and a rival to the series protagonist, the Doctor,[85
] simultaneously paralleling the Doctor's detached
alien nature with Jack's humanity and "heart".[86]
John Barrowman describes the character in his initial appearance as
"an intergalactic conman" and also a "rogue Time Agent" which he
defines as "part of a kind of space CIA" and alludes to the
moral ambiguity of having "done something in his past" and not
knowing "whether it is good or bad because his memory has been
erased".[85
] Writer Stephen James Walker notes
similarities have been found between Jack and Angel (David Boreanaz),
the heroic vampire from
America's Buffy the Vampire
Slayer and Angel; Alan Stanley Blair of
SyFy Portal pointed out that "Back alley fights, knowledge of the
paranormal and an unwanted task of defending the helpless are only
a few of the correlations between the two characters."[87][88]
Jack has also been compared to the title character of America's Xena: Warrior
Princess, which featured lesbian subtext between Xena (Lucy Lawless) and her
close friend Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor). Polina Skibinskaya,
writing for AfterElton.com, notes both are "complex
characters" haunted by their past misdeeds. Furtheremore, like
Xena, Jack is "a gay basher’s worst nightmare: a queer
weapon-wielding, ass-kicking superhero gleefully chewing his way
through awesome fight scenes".[89] In
another contrast, where the Doctor is a pacifist, Jack is more
inclined to see violent means to reach similar ends. The BBC News website refers to
Jack's role within Doctor Who as "[continuing] what began
with Ian
Chesterton and continued later with Harry Sullivan".[90]
Whereas in the classic series the female "companions" were
sometimes exploited and sexualised for the entertainment of
predominantly male audiences, the producers could reverse this
dynamic with Jack, citing an equal need amongst modern audiences to
"look at good looking men". John Barrowman linked the larger number
of women watching the show as a key factor in this.[91]

Jack is bisexual,[78][92]
and is also the first Doctor Who character to be openly
anything other than heterosexual. In Jack's first appearance, the
Doctor suggests that Jack's orientation is more common in the 51st
century, when mankind will deal with multiple alien species and
becomes more sexually flexible.[2]
Within Doctor Who's narrative, Jack's sexual orientation
is not specifically labeled as that could "make it an issue".[78][93]
On creating Jack, Davies comments "I thought: 'It's time you
introduce bisexuals properly into mainstream television,'" with a
focus on making Jack fun and swashbuckling as opposed to negative
and angsty.[94]
Davies also expresses that he didn't make the character bisexual
"from any principle", but rather because "it would be interesting
from a narrative point of view."[95]
The bisexuality-related labels "pansexual" and "omnisexual" are also
frequently applied to the character.[96]
Writer Steven
Moffat suggests that questions of sexual orientation do not
even enter into Jack's mind;[97]
Moffat also comments "It felt right that the James
Bond of the future would bed anyone."[98]
Within Torchwood, the character refers to sexual
orientation classifications as "quaint".[11]
In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, John Barrowman
explained that "[He]’s bisexual, but in the realm of the show, we
call him omnisexual, because on the show, [the characters] also
have sex with aliens who take human form, and sex with male-male,
women-women, all sorts of combinations."[92]

Development

The character is described as both "lethally charming ... good
looking and utterly captivating",[77]
as well as "flirtatious, cunning, clever and a bit of an action
man".[91]
Within Doctor Who, Jack's personality is relatively
light-hearted, although this changes in Torchwood's first
series, where he becomes a darker character.[99] For
his charm, ageless appearance and humour, Examiner.com cites Jack as a modern trickster, in the same vein
as the NorsedeityLoki.[100] In
Torchwood's first series, Jack has been shaped by his
ongoing search for the Doctor and also by his role as a leader, in
which he is predominantly more aloof.[7]
In Torchwood, he would occasionally inquire or muse about
the afterlife and religion,[8]
sympathising with a man's desire to die.[101]
Returning in Doctor Who Series Three, Jack indicates he
now maintains a less suicidal outlook than before.[7][15]
In the second series of Torchwood, Jack became a much more
light-hearted character once again, after appearances in Doctor
Who where he was reunited with the Doctor.[18][19]
In the third series of Torchwood, the audience sees some
of Jack's "darker side", as well as "the secrets that Jack has, the
pressures, drama and the trauma he's carrying on his
shoulders".[102]
The American political blog Daily Kos states Jack "can certainly be
characterized as a Byronic hero, a tragic figure with a
streak of melancholy, heroic yet misunderstood, bold yet rash. Most
importantly, his sexuality is one single aspect of a much more
complex, flawed character."[103]

During Jack's initial appearances in Doctor Who,
Russell T Davies held a "half-hearted" theory that Jack would dress
specific to the time period he was in, to contrast the Doctor who
dresses the same wherever and whenever he goes. He is introduced
wearing a greatcoat in
World War II-set
episodes, but changes to modern day jeans in contemporary episode
"Boom Town" and black leather in futuristic episodes. Davies admits
that this was a "bit of a lame idea" and decided that Jack "never
looked better than when he was in his World War II outfit".[104
] From the pilot of
Torchwood onwards, Harkness once again wears period
military clothes from the second World War, including braces and an officer's
wool greatcoat in every appearance. Costume designer Ray Holman
commented in a Torchwood Magazine interview
that "We always wanted to keep the World War Two hero look for him,
so all his outfits have a 1940s flavor." Because the character was
expected to "be running around a lot", Holman redesigned his RAF
Group Captain's greatcoat from Doctor Who to make it more
fluid and less "weighty". Jack's other costumes are "loosely
wartime based", such as the trousers are "getting more and more
styled to suit his figure". Holman explains that there are actually
five Captain Jack coats used on the show. The "hero version" is
used for most scenes, while there is also a wetcoat made with
pre-shrunk fabric, running coat which is slightly shorter to
prevent heels getting caught, and two "stunt coats" that had been
"hero coats" in the first series."[105]
Davies feels the military uniform reinforces the idea that the
character "likes his Captain Jack Harkness identity". Julie Gardner
describes the coat as "epic and classic and dramatic", while
director Brian Kelly believes it gives
Jack "a sweep and a presence".[104
]

In several instances in Torchwood, Jack displays no
qualms about killing a person of any species,[106][107][108]
which within Doctor Who, allows Jack's character to act in
ways the lead character cannot. Barrowman remarks, "He'll do things
the Doctor won't do ... [such as] fight. Jack will kill. And the
Doctor, in a way, knows that, so he lets Jack do it. I'd say Jack's
the companion-hero."[7]
A flashback in the third series shows Captain Jack sacrificing
twelve children to aliens in order to save millions of lives.[31]
Davies feels third series of Torchwood is a "tale of
retribution and perhaps redemption" for Captain Jack, who
experiences "maximum damage" when his lover Ianto is killed. Davies
chose to have Ianto die so that Jack would be damaged enough to
sacrifice his grandson in order to destroy the same aliens.[109]
Barrowman was concerned that the storyline could have made the
character unpopular. He believes however that Jack was given the
tough decision on how to save humanity; the actor says "when I read
all of the stuff he had to do, I had to look at it from the point
of view of 'I'm Jack Harkness and I'm right'."[102]

When reuniting with the Doctor in the 2007 series, he is
verbally warned "don't you dare" when pointing a gun,[15]
and scolded when contemplating snapping the Master's neck.[110]
Witnessing the murder of his colleague Owen, Jack shoots his
killer in the forehead, killing him in an act of swift
revenge.[111]
Whilst the Doctor scolds Jack for joining the Torchwood Institute
(an organisation he perceives as xenophobic and aggressive), Jack maintains
that he reformed the Institute in the Doctor's image;[110]
Jack himself had initially been critical of the moral failings of a
19th century Torchwood.[22]
Actor Gareth David-Lloyd describes the 19th century Torchwood as
"quite ruthless and quite evil" and "on the other side" from Jack
and the Doctor. Through Jack, whose perspective is widened by the
his experiences in other planets and times, the organisation was
able to grow less jingoistic.[112
]

The character's unexpected popularity with a multitude of
audiences,[6][83][98]
would later shape his appearances both as a traditional "action
hero" and as a positive role model for younger viewers.[113]
Barrowman also remarks that "The beauty of Captain Jack, and one of
the reasons why I think, as an actor, I've landed on my feet, is
that he's popular with one audience in Torchwood and with
another in Doctor Who."[7]
Expanding upon his action hero role, the character would develop
some supernatural abilities in Torchwood, primary among
them a seemingly absolute immortality (either through resurrection
and invulnerability),[15]
the ability to heal others through kissing,[11][107]
and also a limited degree of telepathy.[108]
Jack also alludes in one episode to evolved "51st century pheromones", which make him
more sexually attractive.[22]

Face of
Boe

Russell T Davies referred to a scene in "Last of the Time Lords"
as promoting a theory that Jack may one day become recurring
character "the Face of Boe" (a large, mysterious disembodied head
in a glass case) as a consequence of his immortality and slow
aging.[17]
The Face first appeared in 2005 episode "The End of the
World", appearing fully three times and maintaining a presence
through to the end of the 2007 series. Barrowman described himself
and David Tennant as being "so excited" to the extent where they
"jumped up screaming" when they read Jack's line regarding the Face
of Boe, remarking "It was probably the most excitable moment we had
during the shooting of that series."[114]
The Face of Boe had originally been a throwaway line in a script
for "The End of the World"; because creating the character seemed
expensive, the Face of Boe was nearly discarded and replaced.
However, special effects designer Neil Gorton loved the idea and
pushed to make sure the character lived. Davies loved Gorton's
design and to his surprise, the character was being written into
future episodes and became pivotal in the second series.[115] In
a spin-off novel, The Stealer of Dreams (2005), Captain
Jack makes a reference to the Face of Boe as a famous figure.[36]
Davies conceived the idea that the two characters might be
connected midway through the production of the 2007 series.[17]

Barrowman states that when fans ask him if Jack is really the
Face of Boe, he tells them he believes he is and states that he and
Davies hold it to be true "in [their] little world"; the link is
"unconfirmed" within the text of the show. As to how Jack
becomes the Face, Barrowman feels the answer doesn't matter as it
is intentionally mysterious. Barrowman likes the characters being
connected because it means in spite of how the Doctor initially
treats Jack, "Boe becomes his confidante and the one the Doctor
returns to for advice and information" which he feels is a
"wonderful twist of events".[116]
However, Davies doesn't like making whether Jack really is the Face
of Boe explicit, stating "the moment it became very true or very
false, the joke dies". He has refused the publication of spin-off
novels and comic books that have tried to definitively link the
two.[117]

Relationships

Ianto

In a Doctor Who Magazine interview,
Barrowman described Jack's love for Ianto as "lustful", and
explained if he ever were to settle down with him, he would "let
Ianto know that he [Jack] has to play around on the side".[118]
The Torchwood Series Two premiere sees Jack ask Ianto out
on a date in an attempt to formalise their relationship.[20]
John Barrowman and Gareth David-Lloyd opined in an interview at Comic-Con to fan
questions that Jack's relationship with Ianto has however brought
out Jack's empathy, and helped to ground him.[114]
John Barrowman said in an interview that Ianto "brings out the
"human" in [Jack]" and "brings out more ... empathy because he’s
actually fallen for someone and he really cares about somebody ...
[which] makes him warm to other people ... [and] makes him more
approachable." In the same interview, Gareth David-Lloyd said of
the relationship and his character that "I think Ianto’s always
made him care and that is really the heart of the show."[114]
However, Stephen James Walker feels that Jack's relationship with
Ianto is one-sided; Ianto seems to feel the relationship is
"serious and committed", but while dancing with Gwen in "Something Borrowed",
Walker believes that Jack appears to equate his relationship with
Ianto to nothing more than a "recreational activity", and considers
it "obvious Jack only has eyes and thoughts for Gwen".[119][120]

Just as Jack and Ianto's relationship is developing, Ianto dies,
in Children of Earth (2009). While some fans felt
"cheated" at not seeing the relationship develop further, Davies
explains his intention was to heighten the tragedy by it also being
a loss of potential, stating "You grieve over everything they could
have been. Everything you hoped for them." For dramatic purposes
within the story, Davies explains that Ianto's death was necessary
so that Jack would be damaged enough to sacrifice his own
grandson.[109]
Gareth David-Lloyd feels that the lack of resolution for the love
story is "part of the tragedy".[121]
Some fans were displeased by Ianto's death scene and the end of the
relationship, and some even accused one the writers of
"deliberately egging on the shippers'".[122
]

Other

In a 2007 interview, Eve Myles, who portrays Gwen, describes the
relationship between Jack and Gwen as a "palpable love" and opines
that "with Jack and Gwen, it’s the real thing and they’re going to
make you wait for that."[9]
However, Barrowman feels that if Jack were to settle down with
Gwen, "he'd have to commit completely" to her; this is why he does
not act on his feelings for her, because even though she would let
him flirt with other people, he could "never afford to do anything
more".[118]
The Torchwood Series Two premiere sees Jack promise Gwen
that she was the reason he returned to Cardiff, only to find out
she had become engaged to Rhys (Kai Owen); later in the same episode, he asks
Ianto out on a date.[20]
Gareth David-Lloyd feels that for Jack, "there’s two different
sorts of love going on there", and that Jack feels for Gwen and
Ianto in different ways.[123]

“

"He always loses them. He outlives
them. They die. He watches them get old. That bothered him in
Series One [of Torchwood], but now he's come to terms with
that, I think ... so now he just sleeps around!"

”

——John Barrowman on why his character could never find a soulmate.[118]

Discussing whether his character could ever find "The One", John
Barrowman refutes that Jack "likes everybody, and his love for each
person is different". Barrowman believes that Jack does harbour
romantic feelings toward the Doctor, but "would never take that
beyond infatuation" and "would never let the Doctor know".
Barrowman claims that Jack also "fancies" fellow
companion Martha Jones, admiring her "tenacity" and willingness to
"spat with him", and describes Jack's love for Toshiko and Owen as
"fatherly", stating "He was guiding them. That's why it was so
devastating for him to lose them."[118]
The second series of Torchwood also introduced Jack's
ex-lover, Captain John. Head writer Chris Chibnall introduced John to act as
a "proper nemesis, somebody to really test [Jack], to push him, and
to reveal something about Jack's character". In the use of Captain
John as a literary foil, Chibnall comments "you
see the way Jack could have gone, and probably did, for a little
while" which underlines how "Jack, in his experiences with the
Doctor and Torchwood, made a very conscious decision to move away
from that behaviour."[124]

In their academic publication, Queer TV, Glyn Davis and
Gary Needham discuss Jack's role within Torchwood as a
post-gay, romantic hero. Noting Torchwood's central gay
themes, they comment that "it is through the character of Captain
Jack that Torchwood is able to mine its queerness."[125]
Discussing Jack's brief romance with his namesake, the real Captain Jack (Matt Rippy), academic
critics have noted that "The Captain Jacks both share the same name
and are quite similar in physical appearance, thus literalizing the
homo-ness of the situation. Through the time-travel device this points to a
narcissistic
self-fascination, the old cliché that homosexuality is the love for
sameness."[125]
Other relationships which have been described or alluded to (both
in the television series and other media) include ex-girlfriends
Estelle Cole,[126]
Duchess Eleanor,[72]
Stella Courtney,[73]
Lucia Moretti,[29]
ex-boyfriend Greg Bishop,[42]
and an unnamed ex-wife.[120]

Describing the patterns of his relationships throughout the
series, Davis and Needham draw the conclusion that "while Captain
Jack desires both men and women, his long-term love affairs and
onscreen kisses are mostly with men in the past and present."
Commenting on this postmodern attitude towards bisexuality,
or in what Russell T Davies calls "omnisexuality", they continue to
remark that "His character brushes against definitions of queer
sexuality in that he resists any sort of classification based on
sexual orientation." They also comment on the subtexts of
particular episodes, such as gay time-travel romance episode "Captain
Jack Harkness", and within that the relevance of
time-travelling Jack Harkness to tackle the question of forbidden
gay attraction in what is post-Brokeback television.[125]
In Understanding TV Texts by Phil Wickham, Wickham opines
that Captain Jack explicitly "brings to the fore" with his "brazen
bisexuality", "something we have to come to expect [from Russell T
Davies] as viewers of his work".[127]

Critical reception and
impact

Following the character's initial introduction in the revived
Series One of Doctor Who, the character became incredibly
popular with fans,[6][98][128] to
the extent that Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner created a spin-off series,
Torchwood, primarily centred around the character.[78]The Times
described the undeniable success of the character as having
propelled actor John Barrowman to "National Treasure status".[129]
For his role as Captain Jack, John Barrowman was nominated for Best
Actor at the 2007 BAFTA
Cymru Awards.[130]
Harkness was also listed number nine in TV Squad's "Ten Most
mysterious characters on television",, behind the Tenth Doctor, who was
listed number three.[131]
John Barrowman, who is himself openly gay, has ranked in the Independent on
Sunday pink list, a list of the most influential gay
people in Britain, in 2007 and 2008, with the Independent
commenting that "Proof of his popularity came with the continued
runaway success of his bisexual Captain Jack Harkness on Russell T
Davies's Torchwood".[132][133]
Part of Jack's mystique was his sex appeal, swashbuckling heroism
and sexual appetite.[134]
In anticipation of the character's return to Doctor Who in
Series Three after a successful run in the first series of
Torchwood, mainstream media hailed his return.[129]

“

I do watch a lot of
television science fiction, and it is a particularly sexless world.
With a lot of the material from America, I think gay, lesbian and
bisexual characters are massively underrepresented, especially in
science fiction, and I'm just not prepared to put up with that.
It's a very macho, testosterone-driven genre on the whole, very
much written by straight men. I think Torchwood possibly
has television's first bisexual male hero, with a very fluid
sexuality for the rest of the cast as well. We're a beacon in the
darkness.

In the media, Jack is described as both the "first openly gay
companion" and as a "hunky bisexual".[136]
Jack's notability is largely due to his mainstream representation
of a bisexual man in science fiction television, for whom sexual
identity is "matter-of-fact",[134]
and not an issue.[93]
The ordinariness with which Jack's orientation is regarded within
Doctor Who embodies part of a political statement about
changing societal views of homosexuality.[91]
The distinct flexibility of Jack's sexuality contributed directly
towards the character's popularity and public interest.[91]
The overtness of Jack's sexuality broke new grounds, the labels
"pansexual" and "omnisexual" being applied to the character on
occasion. In "The Parting of the Ways", Jack kissed both Rose and
the Doctor on the lips,[5]
the latter being the first same-sex kiss in the history of the
programme. Despite the boldness of the first lesbian, gay or
bisexual character in the series' run, there has been very little
uproar about the character, although there was some controversy at
the time of Jack's introduction.[137]
Speculating, Barrowman tries to link Jack's popularity with this
portrayal, noting "I think audiences just get Jack because he's
honest ... to finally see a character who doesn't care who he
flirts with, I think is a bit refreshing."[18]

The presence of the character in prime time television sparked discussion of
the nature of bisexuality in a number of outlets where normally it
is dismissed or overlooked.[75][96][138][139]Channel4.com cites Jack as a positive role
model for gay and bisexual teenagers,[10][140]
where little had been present for this audience in years gone by
and subsequently leading to a greater culture of tolerance. Meg
Barker writes for the Journal of Bisexuality that
although "the b word does not actually get used during the
show", Jack is one of the first positive and clearly bisexual
characters on British television. She does point out however that
Jack retains some elements of bisexual stereotyping, particularly in
his "flamboyant" promiscuity.[141
] Jack has also been cited in America to contrast
the portrayals of non-heterosexual characters in mainstream
television in the US and the UK. Gary Scott Thompson, producer of
the 2008 revival of Knight Rider, said,
"If I could use Jack in Torchwood as a role model—I would
absolutely use him as a role model—I love his conflictedness about
... everybody".[142]

Readers of AfterElton.com, an American gay mens'
website, voted Jack the tenth best gay or bisexual television
character of all time, the poll itself ultimately being won by
Queer as
Folk character Brian Kinney (also the product of Russell
T Davies). The website praised Jack—one of only two bisexual
characters on the list of 25—for being having both "tough" and
"tender" sides to his personality, as seen in the
Torchwood episode "Captain Jack Harkness".[143]
Amongst science fiction characters, Jack also topped another
AfterElton rundown of top characters, beating Hellblazer's John
Constantine for the top spot, commenting upon Jack's
representation of a "'post-gay' approach to sexual themes" and
awarding him a full 10/10 for cultural significance.[144] For
the AfterElton 2008 Visibility Awards, Jack won the award for
Favourite TV Character. The website commented that "unlike
virtually every other TV sci-fi character, lead or supporting,
Captain Jack is also openly bisexual. Ironically, this "small"
change served to help make the science fiction genre, long the
ultimate bastion of straight men, accessible not just to GLBT
people, but also straight women, who also enjoy the show’s
alternate take on sexuality." The third award won for
Torchwood, after Favourite TV Drama and Character, was won
by Jack and Ianto for Best Couple, for which the editor commented
"Torchwood is revolutionary not just because the producers
dare to put openly bisexual (or in Jack’s case "omnisexual")
characters in the formerly sacrosanct setting of sci-fi; it’s also
that it presents these bisexual characters in such an amazingly
matter-of-fact way. There’s no apologizing, no minimizing, and no
moralizing—just good, old-fashioned romance and adventure."[145]

Jack has gone on to become a recognisable figure in the British
public consciousness, and therefore has attracted some parody. The
character of Jack Harkness has been parodied several times on the
satirical impressionist television show Dead
Ringers. Played by Jon Culshaw, the show pokes fun at his
bisexuality and apparent campness, as well his melodramatic
personality in Torchwood. In one sketch, he walks
bizarrely towards the camera, kissing a policeman as he passes
him.[146] In
another sketch, he can be seen having a threesome with two
Cybermen, a race of cyborgs from Doctor Who.[147]
Satirical technology columnist Verity Stob wrote a parody of
Torchwood Season One in the style of Dylan Thomas's radio
play Under
Milk Wood, called Under Torch Wood. This parody
described Captain Jack as "the insomniac bicon; snug as a hobbit,
pretty as a choirboy, immortal as carbon dioxide, wooden as a
horse."[148]
Barrowman's ubiquity, however, has even provoked criticism of the
character. Jim Shelley of the Daily Mirror, in his review of
Children of Earth, said "Unlike David Tennant's Doctor,
Barrowman's endless appearances on friendly drivel like Tonight's the
Night, The Kids Are Alright and
Any Dream Will Do,
is so over-exposed, 'Captain Jack' is about as intriguing or alien
as a Weetabix and twice as
irritating. Unlike Tennant, as an actor he is just not good
enough."[149]
Television journalist Charlie Brooker, in his Screenwipe review of
2009 criticised Barrowman, with focus on his acting. "Harkness is
of course a man of mystery. You can't tell what he's thinking just
by looking at his face... no matter how hard Barrowman tries."[150]

The character's recognisability extends outside the UK. In a
Halloween episode of the 2008 series of American drama Knight
Rider, character Billy Morgan (Paul Campbell) dresses
up as Captain Jack, whom he refers to as "the time-travelling
bisexual".[151][152] In
2009, Barrowman's variety show Tonight's the
Night broadast a specially written humorous Doctor
Who scene scripted by Russell T Davies. In the scene,
Barrowman appears initially as Captain Jack confronting an alien on
board the TARDIS who claims to be the Doctor. However, David
Tennant appears as himself and John Barrowman is revealed as
playing Captain Jack in the TARDIS set.[153][154]
Action figures have also been created in the actor's likeness,
which Barrowman says was a "longtime dream".[74]

^ ab"Feature: Torchwood; Divided
Loyalties". Starburst. http://www.visimag.com/starburst/358_feat01.htm. Retrieved 2008-01-20. ""He
is probably back to his normal self now, which is, he’s still got
some darkness, but he’s got a humour back. He’s got his one-liners,
he finds the humour in a situation, and he’s quick to point that
out to people. So yes, he’s a different Jack, but he’s come back as
the Jack that we first knew and loved from Doctor
Who.""